Let me start with the good. Graphics, backgrounds, music/sound, animation is amazing. Like in good old broken sword 2 (and 2,5) Enjoyed first part on Christmas just after 1st part has been released. Took mi less than 10hrs (I don't know if it's fast or slow) and I was slightly disappointed when I was left with George and Nico atop the burning house. Took me a while to start part two due to lack of time for such commitment but this summer I finally started it and at the beginning everything was as I remembered, but soon the "riddles" became so abstract that I had to resolve to walk-throughs and hints and on occasion event this did not help. So here I am, 5 months later barely done 3/4 of the story an I REALLY hope that I've just passed the lowest point in the story: jam covered roach with paper clip on his back having to go and short a broken circuit. Trevor (the roach) seems to be essential for our protagonists survival and escape. Ah, and the talking drain pipe, when you have to use radio (walkie-talkie) on drain pipe to talk with Nico... Common sense went sleep early that day... Overall I don't regret buying it and I'd welcome BS6 (I played all official and unofficial parts) but really such games should be shown to some normal ppl before release to assess whether the riddles make sense and lack of logic does not ruin the experience. Ok... Vented a little, back to the game...
It's no wonder they finished the series back in the days on this one. I started my adventure with BS2, finished it thrice or even four times during my life, enjoyed it every time almost the same as when I was playing for the first time. Then years later it was BS1 finally remastered to its deserved quality. I kept myself away from these 3D-thingy as I perceived them as betrayal of a great concept (which returned with BS5) so I played BS5 episode 1 last year, but episode 2 was late to show so out of the boredom I gave it a go and went for BS3 which, once you learned the new keyboard-only controls, eventually came out very good. Despite blurry textures and coarse scenery It was more like watching slightly interactive movie. Finishing BS3 on a high I went instantly for BS4 and the tragedy began. I'm currently about 20% in but here's couple of annoyances so far... - Moving back and forth between two locations is required to get to next level. - Silly and unintuitive puzzles (Bugs eating clock, anyone? Random mp3 player appearance? ) - CAMERA MOVEMENT - this one is the worst. When your character moves the camera follows and switches constantly from one camera to another. if you try to click on something during that movement, you're doomed. - Controls - while BS1,BS2,BS5 utilises only mouse, BS3 only keyboard BS4 utilises both (badly though) You move with cursor keys but the "run" key is "left control" which is out of reach when one of your hand is on said cursor keys and the other is operating mouse. - Controls take two - There are several items you must use right-click and then select non-default action. 95% of items don't have that, but if you forget about that 5% you'll be stuck for hours. I'll finish it out of sentiment for the whole series, but I'm not willing to spend long hours dwelling over some messed up puzzle, so I have walkthrough at hand. Sadly - very handy.
